Sunday, September 27, 2015

Interest in vegan diets has finally overtaken vegetarian in the UK as a combined effort from public events such as VegfestUK, the work of the UK Vegan Society and documentaries such as Cowspiracy, Forks Over knives and Earthlings has swayed public opinion.

Despite the mounting evidence that a balanced vegan diet is much healthier than average a worrying stubborn hard-core of Doctors, midwives, dietitians and nutritionists continue to discourage patients from continuing on a vegan diet or even from breastfeeding.

This contravenes all health professional guidance on due diligence and best practice. Governing bodies of health professionals are urged to ensure that their members are aware of all the latest evidence based facts on vegan diets including the availability of nutritional tools such as vegan Vitamin D3 from Lichen and Omega 3 EPA and DHA from algae.

Presently only one professional body, The British Dietetic Association, has publicly undertaken to work with the UK Vegan Society to ensure it's members are fully up to date with the facts on vegan diets rather than the urban myths that abound.

Vegfest UK at London Olympia on 10th October and Glasgow SECC on 5th December will be hosting a health summit, bringing together leading dietetic and nutrition experts to help health professionals bring their knowledge up to date with the facts and evidence based research on vegan diets.

Wednesday, September 23, 2015

Vegan Chef searches for former guests of award winning boutique and idiosyncaratic Highland hotel Taigh Na Mara Vegan Guesthouse Nr Ullapool. He has apealled to newspapers such as The Herald and The Scotsman to try and track down thousands of guests from mainly Glasgow , Edinburgh and all over the USA from cities such as New Yoork and San Francisco

The chef , Tony Bishop-Weston (nee Weston) wants former guests to vote for his cookbook, The Vegan Cookbook, published by Hamlyn that has been nominated for 'The Best Vegan Cookbook Award' by VegfestUK to be presented at Vegfest London at Olympia on Saturday 10th October.

Tuesday, August 04, 2015

As part of the continuing efforts to Vegducate as many people as possible about the vegan solutions to avoidable world problems that threaten our planet VegfestUK is now hosting a Health Summit for Health Professionals at London Olympia on Saturday 10th October.

Sadly there are still many health professionals that are unaware of the evidence based science that supports the solution of a healthier balanced plant based diet to common health problems and the vegan diets suitability for all age groups.

Harley Street nutritional therapist Yvonne Bishop-Weston reveals "I am frequently contacted by mothers at their wits end because of pressure put upon them by Doctors to start eating meat and cheese and feed animal products to their children, like there is some magical ingredient that can only be found in meat and dairy. It reveals a lack of understanding about basic nutrition and the nutrients found in food"

"Yes a person may fair better on a diet higher in protein, may have some health condition that requires extra omega 3 EPA and DHA, or vitamin B12 or vitamin D3 or probiotics but there are now excellent plant based versions of all of these nutritional tools."

Earlier this year The Vegan Society reached a historic agreement with The British Dietetic Association. The Vegan Society and The British Dietetic Association have agreed to collaborate to bring reliable plant based nutrition information to every community in the UK.

Tony Bishop-Weston, executive consultant Vegan Chef and Author of The Vegan Cookbook, has helped VegfestUK bring together some leading lights in Nutrition and Dietetics to provide a line up of distinguished speakers to provide evidence based science that backs up the argument for vegan solutions to the scourge of avoidable self inflicted health problems we face.

Chef says "For too long many health professionals, GP's, midwives, dietitians, nutritionists, health workers have written off plant based diets as unnatural and exclusionary. This may be partly because of the way vegan diets were better known for what wasn't vegan, what they didn't eat rather than what vegans do eat - messages were full of negative messages, not this, don't eat that, no no no rather than yes yes yes and motivational provocative messages focused on delicious and dynamic vegan solutions. That's all changed. Bookshops are awash with beautiful vegan cookbooks with deliciously inspiring vegan recipes. The supermarkets now sell edible melting vegan cheese, vegan sausages, dairy free ice cream in fact everything from plant based caviar to vegan haggis. Thanks to 70 years of UK veganism there's now plenty of people to prove that a vegan diet can be far healthier than the average UK diet"

Speakers at The VegfestUK Health Summit for Health Professionals include

Dr Emma Derbyshire, PhD, is a registered public health nutritionist government adviser on nutrition and diet matters and award-winning nutrition and health writer.

Dr Emma Derbyshire Nutritionist

Sandra Hood RD - A specialist dietician for the NHS Sandra runs education
sessions on diabetes for patients and health professionals. Sandra
is author of 'Feeding your Vegan Baby with Confidence' published by The
Vegan Society and has had numerous articles published in magazines. She
worked closely with Plamil Foods to produce Infant Case Histories to
prove the efficacy and benefits of a plant food based diet for infants. Sandra is currently working on nutrition material for the Vegan Society and BDA collaboration. She will be joined by Nutritional Therapist Yvonne Bishop-Weston

Sandra Hood registered Dietitian

Dr Nina Bailey -BSc Hons, MSc, PhD, ANutr: Nutrition Scientist - Head of Clinical Nutrition Igennus Healthcare Nutrition - Dr Nina Bailey is a leading expert in marine fatty acids and their role in health and disease. Dr Bailey holds a master's degree in Clinical Nutrition and received her doctorate from Cambridge University and is a published scientist, regularly featured in national health publications.

Other speakers include Paul Appleby from the Oxford University/European EPIC Study, Dr Tushar Mehta from Toronto, motivational expert Brian Jacobs and yoga guru talking about and demonstrating yoga as a tool to alleviate some of the effects of stress.

Friday, February 06, 2015

Caroline Lucas MP has been voted the UK's
most ethical politician in 2007, 2009 and 2010 by readers of the
Observer, in 2008 was judged one of the Guardian’s top “eco-heroes”, received Red magazine's Woman of the Year Award 2010 in the
ethical/eco category and is in the Environment Agency's Top 100
Eco-Heroes of all time.